Friday, October 21, 2011

Moammar Gadhafi was born in 1942 and abandoned Geography studies to pursue a military career. He rose to power at only 27 after a bloodless coup against King Idris in 1969. In the 70's he laid out his Third Universal Theory which walked a line between communism and capitalism and oversaw the rapid development of Libya with regards to her oil industry and military. He improved living standards making him popular with the poor at least initially.

As other Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia also improved oil production to the same degree, Libyans noticed that the standard of living in these places was becoming much higher whereas in Libya; while the economy and infrastructure was improved - freedom and liberty became severely restrained. All political parties were banned and any attempts at creating one were met with execution. Intrusive surveillance was set up in government, education and industrial sectors. 10% of the Libyan people became informants. Freedom of expression was outlawed and any objections to the regime were met with public mutilations and dismemberment. Adultery was punished by flogging, homosexuals were jailed and thieves were amputated. The list goes on, but I'll stop it there...

Castro and Gadhafi BFF

Growing increasingly Islamist, Gadhafi supported militant groups in the Philippines and Indonesia. In '79 he supported the Iranian revolution and later in the '80's he supported the Red Brigades in Italy and the IRA in Ireland. However not content with supporting others, he got his own hands dirty by having his diplomats murder a British policewoman in London, his agents bombed a nightclub in West Berlin but perhaps his most heinous act of all was personally ordering the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 which killed all on board and more in Lockerbie, Scotland the town on which the aircraft debris fell. These events saw many UN countries impose trade sanctions against Libya.

President Reagan set Libya as a high priority for his administration in '81 due to the madman's support for extremist groups. SecDef Haig wanted pro-active measures against him and after year of occasional skirmishes over Libya's claim over the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean, Operation El Dorado Canyon was launched. 18 F-111 bombers dropped 60 tons of munitions on military targets in Tripoli but alas, Gadhafi survived.

In the mid 1990's Gadhafi seemed to reassess his image and began a process of atonement by extraditing the "Lockerbie bombers" to Scotland. Due to a fall in oil prices in the early 2000's, Gadhafi publicly renounced terrorism and once Saddam Hussein was captured in Iraq in 2006 he renounced his own WMD programme. It seemed Libya was finally coming in from the cold as I noted then.

In February 2011, with vigour infused by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, there were major political protests against Gadhafi. The protesters were met with stiff opposition as the tyrant claimed all who opposed him were drunk and had consumed drugged Nescafé. When he ordered that his troops begin gunning down the protesters "like dogs and rats", that was the final straw for the Libyan people and a full-scale civil war began, and the world took note.

While President Obama promised "no boots on the ground" the U.S. war machine joined it's NATO allies including france and the United Kingdom as they began an intense bombing campaign against Gadhafi-controlled military targets. They systematically whittled down the numbers of his forces with precision strikes and over several months, city by city, allowed the Libyan people to retake control of their country, a privilege denied them for over 4 decades.

Sirte, the dictator's birthplace, became the last bastion of Gadhafi's regime after the fall of Tripoli to the rebels - who had since become The National Transitional Council [NTC]. There on Wednesday evening, RAF Tornados flew surveillance missions which cleared the way for french fighter jets to fly a sortie. The same frenchies that grew some balls and actually started NATO's campaign in Libya earlier in the year, on Thursday morning together with U.S. Predator drones, attacked a convoy at a roundabout two miles west of the city. Over a dozen armed trucks were destroyed killing 50 or so but some of the personnel escaped from their wreckage - among them, unbeknownst to NATO was Colonel Gadhafi himself!

The tyrant fled with a handful of loyal men into a storm drain but the forces of the NTC were in hot pursuit. They fired anti-aircraft guns into the drains before going in on foot. After an intense firefight, the loyalists were dead and a snivelling whimpering Moammar Gadhafi was dragged out from from the sewer pipe in which he was trapped like a rat.

The 69 year old 'Mad Dog' begged for his life, a far cry from his trademark defiant posturing while in power. He was beaten with shoes as a sign of great disrespect, but just in case he didn't get the message he was summarily executed like "a dog in the street" by the very people he had treated worse than animals. His body was hauled onto a truck and dragged around Sirte before being brought to Misrata where it was driven about the streets as the jubilant inhabitants rejoiced shouting "God is great".

"He called us rats, but look where we found him,"
said Ahmed Al Sahati, standing next
to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway.

The entrance to this now-famous storm drain in Sirte is already a monument. The graffiti says "The hiding place of the vile rat Gadhafi."

The man has no basis in any event of reality we exist in. He is, in my opinion quite mad. It's obvious he's playing out some sort of insane plot in his head and the Libyan people are simply playthings in his sick game.

Upon taking power a Lieutenant simply promotes himself to Colonel and starts dressing in completely over the top elaborate military uniforms - I mean what's up with that? Today, if someone just promoted himself to Colonel and started wearing dozens of medals and badges on an array of colourful uniforms and declares that he's in charge - I hope that this would be a sign to people that this bozo needs serious professional help... or a bullet - to prevent a madman from taking power again.

-Excerpt from a declassified psychological report on Colonel Moammar Gadhafi prepared by Lieutenant Colonel C. Creedon, USMC in 1998 for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

May the victims of the Lockerbie bombing and all those even among his own people finally rest in peace now that this tyrant has been sent to rot in hell.

Ahhh Constance you poor misguided child grasping for anything to prove the President is mre than just a windbag.

How did superbama Succeed? he ordered U.S forces to back off after the first few days of Bombing and left it to the British and the French to do the main fighting....that's right THE FRENCH, do you have any Idea what that did to the Colonel mentally, to have to acknowledge that the French actually helped...I also love the fact that Obamas Only "successes" are killing tyrants and terrorists in the Middle east and Afghanistan...something he vowed he would not get involved with when elected , funny that.By the way has he closed Guantanamo yet? no? funny that? Still a sonofabitch is dead today and that is not a bad thing...unless you listen to all those idiots on Newstalk over here who are now claiming Gadaffi was murdered and should have been captured alive to face trial.....hmmm I wonder did he give the victims of Lockerbie a trial???

Colonel, was that a cry for help?, if so, my trusty service pistol stands ready to end your suffering when the time comes...

Mr.V, did you see any American boots on the ground?, No, do you see regime change without the loss of a single American serviceman?, Yes, cost to the US taxpayer?, relative to the cost of President Shrub's misadventures?, practically zero. I'd call that a victory for Obama's foreign policy. As you quite rightfully point out he got the French not only to fight but to win as well. I'm sure that even you will agree that's an amazing feat all by it's self, they went an entire war without surrendering once!.

"Yes if you call doing very little and claiming the credit a "Victory" then Obama is victorious."

Ah Mr.V your gracious acknowledgemnet that my assesment of the situation is the correct one is most gratifying. The delicious irony is that you have also proven my point.

President Shrub's two misadventures did very little and then he claimed "Victory" or at least an end to "major conflict" yet American lifes where lost at an even greater rate than before he declared "Victory" and the cost to the US taxpayer just kept raising.

He was a tad premature?

Obama on the other hand, whilst followed the path laid down by his predecessor, didn't loss a single American life or cost the country a bleeding fortune before or after declaring "Victory".

As for acknowledging our Gallic brethern's contribution, I say, NON!, sod that, they and Ze Germans are still screwing us for the bailout they forced on us. Feck 'em.

Also, I suspect that they only fought because the Colonel laid a daring raid to destroy their Whiteflag stockpile but that's classified so don't go speading it around. ;)

@ Grunt: Thank you old friend. Yes indeed my orders from The Gipper preceeded those of my current CinC and I was glad to finally help carry them out.

@ Constance: There's no denying that Bush failed to get Bin Laden, History must be acknowledged, but Saddam Hussein was tactically the next best thing, and paved the way for Obama to continue Bush's work. The man who makes a long pass to the man who catches it and scores the touchdown isn't a failure because he wasn't the one to score himself.

For Reagan however, we don't use the word "fail" we say "victorious results in dispute".

@ Vaughan: I must disagree with one point. There was no "backing off" as you put it on the part of the U.S.

Dispite the image of being involved in military operations inside yet another Arab country, the U.S. assisted the UK in bombarding the place with millions of dollars in ordanance. While it's true that the majority of air operations were carried out by both the UK and france COMBINED the U.S. flew 5316 mission whereas the french flew 4500! The British spent €136m, the french did spend twice that - and kudos to them, but the U.S. spent $896 [€650m - basically 2x the french contribution and 4x the British].

I'm sure you've heard by now that there was a "sinficant" CIA preseance in country, spotting for air strikes and revealing military targets cunningly hidden from radar and satellite. We shouldn't loose sight of the fact that those air operations were commanded by a U.S. Air Foce General reporting to NATO Command. The Supreme Commander of NATO forces? - that right a U.S. Navy Admiral!

What will hopefully be the "final strike" in the conflict was carried out by RAF and french aircraft as well as U.S. Predator drones.

It was Jon Stewart on the Daily Show in March who commented that due to the United States near-dominance in NATO that it was now mere semantics that NATO was taking over the Libya operation from the US forces.

So right, if Sarkozay and Cameron deserve credit for this then fine but Obama must stand to shoulder with them - if not above them.

@ Civvy: No it wasn't a cry for help! Now shut up. I'm the Colonel and I'm in charge here!

@Civvy I absolutely agree with you but those are the only things he can claim (with the aid of the french) as the unemployment rate continues to rise along with the price of gasoline.

@Colonel Do you want the windbag to win next november , is that what you really want?

By the way what the hell are you doing in Libya? UNETIDA has no Jurisdiction and don't give me some guff about Gadaffi was in negotiations with extraterrestials . This was nothing more than a grudge and you know it!No wonder the U.N is investigating your organisation, just as long as they don't find out about the french arm and operation "Le Whirlpool"....ooops I think I said too much!

@ Vaughan: What I want is for the American people to have two viable candidates to chose from to elect as my CinC.

On one hand you have current POTUS Barack Obama who despite presiding over a disasterous economy and record unemployment as well as ending the U.S. dominance in space - he has now innoculated himself against Republican attacks against his National Security credentials. "I killed Bin Laden and Gadhafi - what have you done?"

Against him will be one of a pool of the most unimpressive looking candidates I've ever seen [and I include the shower of muppets people are being asked to vote for President on this island next week].

Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich is the type of heroic gentleman who surprises his wife with divorce proceedings as she lies in a hospital bed recovering from surgery.

Governor Rick Perry has been a candiate for only a little more than two months but his poor public speaking efforts may have him licked. Bush was great for his time but things are a little more serous now than for this class of boffoonery!

Former Governor Mitt Romney, the robot. He once served as a Mormon missionary in france [so I have a double problem with that], but he did bring a management consultancy business Bain & Co. out of a crisis and turned it's subsidiary into one of the most profitable and largest firms in that field in the nation. He also led the ailing Winter Olympics into a financial success story in 2002.

Ron Paul would be a great candiate but he isn't Republican enough to secure a nomination. I honestly don't know much about former Ambassador to China Jon Hunstman or former Governor Gary Johnson so I doubt their campaigns will be too effective and of course former Senator Rick Santorum can't be POTUS, because children may Google "Santorum".

Wait - there's Herman Cain a Georgia radio host and CEO of Godfather's Pizza and oh - was chairman of board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - basically a black banker and a DJ who can deliver Pizza? - he's a republican? Hey that's actually cool! Maybe he'll win.

The next 12 months is going to be great fun in the land of politics.

As for Libya: Yes it was a grudge, a personal vendetta keeping a promise to an old man I owed a lot to. The price I had to pay to be able to do that was personally very high and will mean that I'll probably never get to do anything like that again but there was no question about paying it to do what I had to do. And that's all I'll say on that for now.

@Colonel Thanks a bunch Colonel , you just reminded me of why Obama is a useless president, this is the Man who people claimed was the next Kennedy , well I guess he is getting America into foreign wars( Remember it was Kennedy who got America into Vietnam and Kennedy who backed The B'ath party in Iraq, that's right No Kennedy, No Saddam Hussein) But sadly unlike JFK he's also the Man who has crippled the Space Program...it was the Daily Show that first showed foootage of the Obama appointed administrator of NASA announcing it was Nasa's job to extend the hand of Friendship to the Muslim World.....errrr not exploring space then....yayy good Job Obama

Phew Lucky thing Colonel that no one noticed I mentioned "Le Whirlpool" I mean I'd hate for that Committee to ask for the photographs I took on that unetida fiasco in France and are available both in gloss or matt prints.

Hmmm! I can't say I'm sorry to see yet another tyrant ousted from power and meet a brutal end.

Better dead than having him testify in an international court, revealing all sorts of secrets about his dealings with the CIA and the Italian PM etc. I suspect that's why The Colonel himself is there - it's not a vendetta - he's "insurance". Send one Mad Dog in to get another using a blanket of chaos provided by the U.S. controlled NATO. I've seen it all before.

Obama's approval ratings soared just after his OBL announcement, but were not long dipping down to the low point later on. Despite his "victory" in Libya people could well vote one of the Colonel's expertly reviewed republicans into office next year because in the long run people just don't care about foreign problems anymore because like all westerners, they are greedy. Their pockets are empty and Obama has done little to fill them or find jobs for those that have none.

Obama only now deserves his Nobel Prize at least for "Peace through superior firepower" and he should be regarded in history for his security accomplishments. But he promised change - and he was voted in because people assumed he was talking about change of a hundred dollar note...

Colonel, I'm dismayed you have lived to see another Birthday after the atrocities you yourself have been a part of. I only hope that the price you must pay that you refer to means that all you hold dear is at an end.

Vaughan, tell us of this Whirlpool! It is an operation? Something that when revealed will tarnish the Colonel to a point where his career will be over? A weapon? Quick, you must tell all least you too are silenced before you can reveal it, just like that dog Gadaffi!

STAR WARS: Force For Change Founding Member

About Me

Years of being dropped on the head as a child has led me to believe that I'm a U.S. Marine General, a senior officer of a UN unit dedicated to defending the planet from things that the world doesn't believe exist. My spiritual beliefs are those formed from the work of George Lucas whom I consider to be a deity. Politically, I'm a right-wing authoritarian and believe diplomacy is achieved by those with the bigger gun. I enjoy listening to scores from movies and TV, watching action, military and sci-fi movies and television, playing 3D shooters and RPGs on the PC, reading comic-books and I adore the impressive sound of my own voice. I recorded 2IGTV; an award-nominated Podcast with my friend Mark centred on news from the world of popular culture which ran for 64 Episodes between '05 and '09. As an actor I've appeared in two major Irish short films and the pilot of a web-series. I've something to say about almost everything and you've made the wise choice of coming here to benefit from my vast wisdom, knowledge and ego - enjoy!

THE GENERAL'S RATINGS

No Star: The greatest load of shit ever, no redeeming qualities. It's creators are blacklisted and will be shot on sight if they don't redeem themselves before I meet them. Seriously - Dear God why?

1 Star (*): Awful crap. A complete waste of time. Should not have been made.

1.5 Stars (*1/2): Bad movie. I'm not happy about having paid to see this.

2 Stars (**): Dissapointing. Not that good at all except for perhaps a few select scenes or elements. I'll choose not to see this again.

2.5 Stars (**1/2): Glad I saw it, but ultimately not good enough. I won't turn it off if it appears on TV, but I'll have it on while doing something else, just to wait for the cool bit I remember.

3 Stars (***): Meh! Middle of the road movie. Balance between love and hated. May watch this on TV years later / may not.

3.5 Stars (***1/2): Enjoyable, but I would need to see it again, possibly on TV before I would purchase it.

4 Stars (****): Extreamly good. I would prefer to watch this again on Blu Ray a year or two on rather than see it on TV, but...

4.5 Stars (****1/2): Several minor flaws but not enough to distract you from excellence. Most likely will be added to my BD collection.

5 Stars (*****): An outstanding work of art. Practically Flawless. To be added to my BD collection.

5 Star Plus (*****+): One of the finest examples of it's genre.
Flawless. Automatically becomes part of my BD collection upon release.

EXEMPTION GRANTED: To be granted an exemption, a movie has literally to be amongst the greatest movies of all time. Examples include Robocop (1987), The Matrix (1999), Mission Impossible 2 (2000), Transformers (2007) and Iron Man 2 (2010). For religious purposes it is accepted that all Star Wars movies are exempt by default and cannot be reviewed.

Brigadier General Creedon is a Class-1 Nutter, he is not affiliated with a recognised news service, an officer of the US Marine Corps, a member of the organised Jedi Order or has ever slept with Scarlett Johannson. The General's Medal Of Honor is made of painted lead and bits of copper.

"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own!" -Scoop Nisker